PLANET LABS, INC
The mountain where the test site is hidden is seen before the last nuclear testAIRBUS DS / SPOT IMAGE
Satellite images show Mount Mantap pock-marked with craters from landslides after the last nuclear testAIRBUS DS / SPOT IMAGE
A close-up of a subsidence crater show scarring from landslides after the testsPLANET LABS, INC.
Another image shows where the nuclear tests are believed to have taken place
It was reported earlier this year that the mountain under which the base is believed to be hidden was at risk of collapsing and leaking radiation into the region.

Experts said if the peak crumbles, clouds of radioactive dust and gas would blanket the region, the South China Morning Post reported.

The Punggye-ri test site is carved deep into the side of Mount Mantap.

Geophysicist Wen Lianxing and his team at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province, said they were “confident” underground detonations were occurring underneath the mountain.

PLEIADES CNES/AIRBUS DS/38 NORTH/SPOT IMAGE
A satellite image taken on April 12, 2017 of a North Korean Punggye-ri test siteNorth Korea state media celebrates its missile capabilityREUTERS
Satellite images show the area around North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test siteREUTERS
Punggye-ri is seen in commercial satellite imagery taken April 12, 2017
They posted an analysis of data collected from more than 100 seismic monitoring sites across China.

This has narrowed down the location of Pyongyang’s nuclear tests with a margin of error of just 100m. They’ve all been under the same mountain.

Seismic data showed the underground test triggered an earthquake of magnitude 6.3, around ten times more powerful than the fifth test a year ago.

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Satellite images showed the blast caused numerous landslides around the Punggye-ri test site, according to the Washington-based 38 North monitoring project.

But Chinese nuclear weapons researcher and chair of the China Nuclear Society Wang Naiyan told the Morning Post a collapse could spark a major environmental disaster.

He said: “We call it ‘taking the roof off’. If the mountain collapses and the hole is exposed, it will let out many bad things.

“A 100 kiloton bomb is a relatively large bomb. The North Korean government should stop the tests as they pose a huge threat not only to North Korea but to other countries, especially China.”

North Korea's Kim Jong Un celebrates with scientists after nuclear tests
Satellite photos taken just a day after the blast reveal new gravel and scree fields shaken loose by the blasts at an elevation of about 2205m.

Analysts said these appeared more numerous and widespread than those caused by previous detonations — which would be in keeping with the increased size of the bomb.

Wang said there are limited mountains in North Korea that are “suitable” to conduct a nuclear test.

He said if the North had simply drilled into the side of the mountain, this increased the risk of “blowing the top off”.

Lan Xiaoqing, a researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics Associate, said: “The fallout can spread to an entire hemisphere.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides guidance on a nuclear weapons program in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency

The fallout can spread to an entire hemisphere

Lan Xiaoqing, researcher

All of North Korea's nuclear tests have been conducted at the Punggye-ri test site - which is built into Mount Mantap.

While the exact locations of the nuclear tests themselves remain a mystery, seismologists believe they can pinpoint it to a 100-metre area.

While a test site could be operated safely at such a location, unsophisticated engineers are believed to have increased the risk of disaster with crude drilling techniques.

Punggye-ri was also the site of North Korea’s sixth-ever nuclear test on September 3, which caused a huge earthquake and sparked a series of smaller tremors and landslides ever since.

Foreign experts and human rights activists had warned this month of the danger of despot Kim Jong-un’s crumbling facilities.

GETTY

North Korea's September 3 nuclear test sparked an earthquakeGETTY

North Korea could cause the collapse of its own nuclear facility
On Monday South Korea warned another nuclear test at the site could lead to a total collapse of the mountain facility, causing a deadly leak of radioactive materials.

The collapse is seen as evidence the September 3 test destabilised the mountainside facility after North Korea tested a huge 100-kiloton explosive which was around seven times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during WW2.

Paul Richards, a seismologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said: “What we are seeing from North Korea looks like some kind of stress in the ground.

"In that part of the world, there were stresses in the ground, but the explosions have shaken them up."

North Korea has not engaged in any missile or nuclear provocations since mid-September.

38 NORHT - AIRBUS DEFENSE

North Korea is continuing to develop its nuclear arsenal

But chilling satellite photos suggest North Korea could be ready to launch another nuclear test with no warning the moment crackpot leader Kim Jong-un decides to push to the button.

If Nukes explode in Korea, China will be effected. If this effects China severely, more space for India to grow economically and politically. And opportunity to enter Security council as permanent member.

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Kim Jong-un is feared to be on the verge of launching the dreaded "Juche Bird” missile – a live nuclear warhead strapped to an ICBM.
US officials now have said they believe the threats to launch should be taken seriously as tensions rage between Pyongyang and Washington.

Pyongyang’s top diplomats announced plans for test after a fiery clash with US President Donald Trump at the UN – and followed it up with a promise it should be taken “literally”.

GETTY

JUCHE BIRD: US officials have admitted they believe Kim will attempt to launch the weapon

Inside North Korea: The pictures Kim Jong-un doesn't want you to see
Since 2008, photographer Eric Lafforgue ventured to North Korea six times. Thanks to digital memory cards, he was able to save photos that was forbidden to take inside the segregated state
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ERIC LAFFORGUE/EXCLUSIVEPIX MEDI
Taking pictures in the DMZ is easy, but if you come too close to the soldiers, they stop you

“I would fully expect if he‘s telling us he’ll do it, he’s going to”

US military official
US officials believe North Korea’s bluster about the test is a way to reduce the chance of military action when they carry it out.

The Pentagon is now closely monitoring the rogue state amid fears of an imminent launch.

Back in 2006, Kim’s dad Kim Jong-il announced he was planning to detonate the nation’s first nuclear bomb the week before.GETTY

NUCLEAR WAR: North Korea is determined to obtain nukes to strike the US
“I would fully expect if he‘s telling us he’ll do it, he’s going to,” an unnamed US official said, reports Defense News.

The official was briefing reporters who were travelling with the US’s top commander General Joseph Dunford.

Kim’s missile would fly from the nation’s eastern coast – hurtling over Japan – before flying out into the central Pacific.

Trump shows NO FEAR: USS Ronald Reagan leads massive drill near North Korea
The U.S. Navy is conducting joint drills with South Korea navy in a show of sea and air power designed to warn off North Korea from any military action. Including the deployment of USS Ronald Reagan, a 100,000-ton nuclear powered aircraft carrier.
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North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un wants to develop nuclear weapons capable of striking the United States in order to clear the path for an invasion of South Korea, a defector diplomat told House lawmakers Wednesday.

“While Kim Jong Un has already long had the tools to destroy South Korea effectively, he also believes it is necessary to drive American forces out of the peninsula,” Thae Yong Ho told the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a Wednesday hearing. “And this can be done, he believes, by being able to credibly threaten the continental United States with nuclear weapons.”

Thae is a former senior diplomat who defected from North Korea in 2016 after a stint as the deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom.

There are about 25,000 American service members in South Korea, which hosts one of the largest U.S. military deployments in the world. North Korea emerged this year as a top foreign policy priority for President Trump’s team, as the regime has tested intercontinental ballistic missiles for the first time and detonated a hydrogen bomb over the summer.

“Today, Kim Jong Un thinks that only nuclear weapons and ICBMs can help him avert the continuing disintegration of the North Korean system,” Thae said in his opening statement.

Thae blamed the disintegration of North Korea on increased access to information, despite the government’s attempt to block access to South Korean media. “[T]he existence of a prosperous and democratic South Korea so close to the border is, by itself, a major threat towards his dynasty,” Thae said.

The Trump administration spearheaded an effort to impose multiple rounds of new sanctions on the North Korea through the United Nations Security Council. But China and Russia have insulated the regime from the full affect of such sanctions, according to western observers, and prevented the U.N. from imposing some of the stiffest sanctions.

Thae said the United States needs to impose “targeted sanctions” on the regime. But the effort to change the dictatorship’s strategy is complicated by a “misunderstanding” of American might.

“Frankly, Kim Jong Un is not fully aware of the strength and might of American military power,” Thae testified. “Because of this misunderstanding, Kim Jong Un genuinely believes that he can break the sanctions regime apart once he compels Washington to accept North Korea’s new status after successfully completing the development of his ICBM program and putting the new missiles into deployment.”http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...ns-plan-to-invade-south-korea/article/2639244

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